The present invention comprises a new Pelargonium, botanically known as Pelargonium interspecific, and hereinafter referred to by the variety name ‘PEQZ0048’.
‘PEQZ0048’ is a product of a planned breeding program. The new cultivar ‘PEQZ0048’ has bright red colored inflorescences held above the medium-green foliage, very heat and drought tolerant with continuous color through the most extreme summer heat, and exceptional edema tolerance on a well-branched plant habit.
‘PEQZ0048’ originates from a hybridization in a controlled breeding program made in February 2007 in a greenhouse in Gilroy, Calif. The female parent was an unpatented, proprietary plant of P. interspecific parentage, identified as ‘Calliope Dark Red’, U.S. Pat. No. 20,245, a dark red flowered variety with a semi trailing habit.
The male parent of ‘PEQZ0048’ was an unpatented, proprietary plant of P. interspecific parentage, identified as ‘10502-3’, a plant with a red semi double flower. The resultant seed was sown in April 2008.
‘PEQZ0048’ was selected as one flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross in August 2008 in a greenhouse in Gilroy, Calif.
The first act of asexual reproduction of ‘PEQZ0048’ was accomplished when vegetative cuttings were propagated from the initial selection in the September 2008 in a greenhouse in Gilroy, Calif.